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"A
program of recovery is perhaps the hardest thing a person will ever
have to do. It requires changing
the way we think, feel and behave.
None of which come easy. Yet people do it everyday!"

Fred
J. Hansen

How Finding Hope can help you or a loved one with alcohol
or drug addiction.

Finding Hope, a sobriety video created by a board
certified psychotherapist and licensed professional counselor with
decades of experience
in helping people
cope
with chemical dependency, is a recovery tool that can
be utilized by individuals, families, clinics, treatment programs,
and the like. Watching from the comfort and safety
of home, anyone can witness addiction counseling and become informed
about substance abuse treatment.

One will discover life changing information about
overcoming addiction, such as:

What
drug and alcohol counseling is like,

What
addiction "help" really is,

How
to quit drinking and stop taking drugs,

How
rehabilitation and treatment programs work,

The
different methods available
for treating chemical dependency and much more.

This
sobriety video takes you on an emotional and powerful journey
from addiction to recovery, and allows you
to walk
in the shoes
of someone seeking addiction help. It
is a conversation that will touch your heart, fill your eyes
with tears, your heart with hope, and lead you to a
place of joy.

Finding Hope is
not a brief overview – it is
a sobriety video containing almost two hours of
one on one conversation between someone with a substance abuse
problem and Fred Hansen, a chemical dependency counselor, discussing
drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Many testimonies are included
in the film – the words of former patients who found
joyous lives in recovery.

The Message
of Finding
Hope has
helped thousands free themselves from the insanity of alcoholism
and drug abuse. Read below a heart felt account from the
film's
creator, describing why he decided
to make it available
to the
world.

Twelve
weeks ago, I received a call from Marcia L., her son had
been taken to a local hospital overdosed from heroin. He’ll
survive this one, today he’s lucky. Not an uncommon
call, sadly I get these frequently. What is troubling is
that he, like so many
others, had
been “flirting” with an overdose for sometime – pushing
the limit of how much he used as his brain worked to compensate
for the quantities he was ingesting and not allowing him
the high he once
experienced.

She
was, as you can quite image, distraught. Moms and Dads
are the worst; wives and husbands are angry. In common, they are
all fearful. They fear the loss of someone they love. It’s
not just Eric the heroin addict – it’s Matthew, the alcoholic
executive of a large local corporation; it’s Sharon, the pharmaceutical
representative; it’s Elaine, the head of purchasing of a national
department store chain; it’s David, whose wife Lynn, mourns
the loss of the relationship she once had with him since he began
to stay at the bar after work with his workmates for happy hour after
work five days a week – anything but “happy” for
Lynn.

I
asked Marcia to bring her son Eric over to my office the day he discharged;
I like to have the opportunity to visit with them while they are
still feeling the physical and psychological effects of what they
have done. We had a great visit; I was able to help Eric understand
that he did have a problem with drugs (you ask of course why that
wouldn’t be obvious). I helped him understand why “denial” kept
him from confronting the disease he suffered from. I helped him understand
that drugs and alcohol were not the problem – that they were
the solution! Yes, drugs and alcohol were the solution to the difficulties
he faced each day, the fears of the past he faced, the trauma he
perceived he experienced when his mom and dad divorced 8 years ago.

I
explained to Eric that for me to ask him to quit drinking and drugging,
without giving him the skills, support, and counseling to confront
the issues he faces, would be like asking a police officer to take
off his Kevlar vest and go out onto the streets without it. Certainly
no one in their right mind would do such a thing.

No
wonder Eric is so fearful of quitting. No wonder his mother’s
admonition to quit, “Eric, if you would just quit using drugs
everything would be OK,” doesn’t work. If Eric quit using
drugs, he fears he would be totally overwhelmed and probably die
from the experience.

Finally
I talked to Eric about the tools I could teach him. I helped him
understand the way working on his self-esteem would allow him to
take a more confident stand against the difficulties he faced. I
helped him understand the way learning better communication skills
would enable him to ask for and receive more of what he wanted and
needed from other people.

I
helped him understand the way conflict management and anger management
would lessen the emotional swings he experiences that lead him back
to a feeling of defeat and ultimately to relapse.

I
helped him understand the way a daily stress management program would
keep his life better balanced – physically, mentally and spiritually.

I
helped him understand that the resentments he carried around with
him, the burden of the offenses of other people against him – only
served to weigh him down and keep him from becoming the man he could
be. I helped him understand what “forgiveness” meant.
That forgiving was for him, not for others. That he could learn to
forgive and by doing so could learn to live a life that was happy,
joyful and free.

I
helped his mother understand how some of her behaviors contributed
to enabling Eric and that those behaviors would need to change. I
helped her understand that the family becomes as sick as the one
we call the “identified patient.”

Finally
I helped Eric understand the value of the support he could get and
would benefit from by participating in a 12-Step program like AA
or NA, not to mention the benefit from participating in spiritual
activities at his church.

Eric
understood. Eric knew it was time. Eric started in the program.

A
program of recovery is perhaps the hardest thing a person will ever
have to do. It requires changing the way we think, feel and behave.
None of which come easy. Yet people do it everyday!

Eric
participated in the program for over three months and grew stronger
day by day. He graduated a month ago and has three months of sobriety.
He is working at Starbucks and starts training at a vocational school
in a couple of months. His mother is beginning to feel the peace
she deserves. Eric is feeling the peace he worked for.

I
am fortunate I had an hour to talk with Eric and his mom. I get to
do this several hundred times a year. I am thankful to God for what
He allows me to do. I am thankful for the hundreds of lives we get
to save each year.

Yet I am
just one person, operating one substance abuse treatment program,
in one small city, in a huge country
where 35,000,000 are suffering
from chemical dependency. Only 5-6% of them will ever walk into a
drug and alcohol rehab center for help, and so I wondered, “if
they won’t come me (or one the other 10,000 or so drug and
alcohol treatment programs around our great country) maybe I can
go to them!” So I decided to write a book about my counseling
sessions with those seeking addiction therapy, which proved to be
very effective in getting them to participate in a chemical dependency
treatment. But a friend of mine suggested that I make it into a sobriety
video about overcoming addiction, so anyone could sit and watch from
the comfort and serenity of their own home. I totally agreed (thanks
Carol).

A
place where they could listen, think and begin the process of
understanding.

A
place where they could come to realize that it is not the quantity
of alcohol they drink or the amount of drugs they
use that is the
problem. But the behaviors they adopt when they
use these substances.

A place where they could begin to understand how learning
new coping
skills would enable them to confront
the difficult and hurtful issues of life.

A place where they could consider how their life
and the lives of those
who love and care about them could change and begin
to heal.

A
place where they could go to their computer and look at the
thousands of treatment
programs around
the country we have listed
on a companion
website, many wherever
they live, who await their call – arms
outstretched, hearts
full of hope and filled with the knowledge that they could
lead
them out of the
darkness that overcomes
them.

And
so, a simple therapist in a small town, with the help and support
of dozens of friends and family, began to make such a movie.

A
friend once told me to set great goals and then just get started – “don’t
try and work out all the details, those will find a way to take care
of themselves in time.” Lots of details came up and answers
were found as soon as they arose. I live in the knowledge that my
life is being directed by the God I serve. I live in the knowledge
that whatever my needs are, God will answer. I live in the knowledge
that when I devote myself to a life of service, blessings
will follow.